page_title: Kūkai
section_title: Travel and study in China
hierarchical_section_title: Kūkai / Biography / Travel and study in China
caption_attribution_description: 台北天后宮中的弘法大師。mingwangx攝於2006年2月14日。 Kobo Daishi at Taipei Tien-Ho Temple. Photo taken by mingwangx at 14 February, 2006.
context_page_description: Kūkai, also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi, 27 July 774 – 22 April 835, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist who founded the Esoteric Shingon or "mantra" school of Buddhism. Shingon followers usually refer to him by the honorific title of Odaishisama and the religious name of Henjō-Kongō.
  Kūkai is famous as a calligrapher and engineer. In legend he is attributed with the invention of the kana syllabary, with which the Japanese language is written to this day, as well as the Iroha poem, which helped to standardise and popularise kana.
context_section_description: In 804, Kūkai took part in a government-sponsored expedition to China, led by Fujiwara no Kadanomaro, in order to learn more about the Mahavairocana Tantra.  Scholars are unsure why Kūkai was selected to take part in an official mission to China, given his background as a private, not state-sponsored, monk.  Theories include family connections within the Saeki-Ōtomo clan, or connections through fellow clergy or a member of the Fujiwara clan.
  The expedition included four ships, with Kūkai on the first ship, while another famous monk, Saichō was on the second ship.  During a storm, the third ship turned back, while the fourth ship was lost at sea.  Kūkai's ship arrived weeks later in the province of Fujian and its passengers were initially denied entry to the port while the ship was impounded.  Kūkai, being fluent in Chinese, wrote a letter to the governor of the province explaining their situation.  The governor allowed the ship to dock, and the party was asked to proceed to the capital of Chang'an (present day Xi'an), the seat of power of the Tang dynasty.
  After further delays, the Tang court granted Kūkai a place in Xi Ming Temple where his study of Chinese Buddhism began in earnest as well as studies of Sanskrit with the Gandharan pandit Prajñā (734–810?) who had been educated at the Indian Buddhist university at Nalanda.
  It was in 805 that Kūkai finally met Master Huiguo (746–805) the man who would initiate him into the esoteric Buddhism tradition at Chang'an's Qinglong Monastery (青龍寺). Huiguo came from an illustrious lineage of Buddhist masters, famed especially for translating Sanskrit texts into Chinese, including the Mahavairocana Tantra. Kūkai describes their first meeting:
  Accompanied by Jiming, Tansheng, and several other Dharma masters from the Ximing monastery, I went to visit him [Huiguo] and was granted an audience. As soon as he saw me, the abbot smiled, and said with delight, "since learning of your arrival, I have waited anxiously. How excellent, how excellent that we have met today at last! My life is ending soon, and yet I have no more disciples to whom to transmit the Dharma. Prepare without delay the offerings of incense and flowers for your entry into the abhisheka mandala".
  Huiguo immediately bestowed upon Kūkai the first level abhisheka (esoteric initiation). Whereas Kūkai had expected to spend 20 years studying in China, in a few short months he was to receive the final initiation, and become a master of the esoteric lineage. Huiguo was said to have described teaching Kūkai as like "pouring water from one vase into another". Huiguo died shortly afterwards, but not before instructing Kūkai to return to Japan and spread the esoteric teachings there, assuring him that other disciples would carry on his work in China.
  Kūkai arrived back in Japan in 806 as the eighth Patriarch of Esoteric Buddhism, having learnt Sanskrit and its Siddhaṃ script, studied Indian Buddhism, as well as having studied the arts of Chinese calligraphy and poetry, all with recognized masters. He also arrived with a large number of texts, many of which were new to Japan and were esoteric in character, as well as several texts on the Sanskrit language and the Siddhaṃ script.
  However, in Kūkai's absence Emperor Kanmu had died and was replaced by Emperor Heizei who exhibited no great enthusiasm for Buddhism. Kukai's return from China was eclipsed by Saichō, the founder of the Tendai school, who found favor with the court during this time. Saichō had already had esoteric rites officially recognised by the court as an integral part of Tendai, and had already performed the abhisheka, or initiatory ritual, for the court by the time Kūkai returned to Japan. Later, with Emperor Kanmu's death, Saichō's fortunes began to wane.
  Saichō requested, in 812, that Kūkai give him the introductory initiation, which Kūkai agreed to do. He also granted a second-level initiation upon Saichō, but refused to bestow the final initiation (which would have qualified Saichō as a master of esoteric Buddhism) because Saichō had not completed the required stud
caption: Kōbō Daishi altar at Tian Hou Temple, Taipei
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